Center-bearing for cars.



J. J. HENNESSEY.

CENTER BEARING FOB. GARS.

AlfPLIoATION FILED HAY 1a, 191.1.

1,009,30"6 Patented N0v.21, 1911.

Figi a t 'lo ffy.

CDLUMBIA'PMNDGRAPH C0.. WASHINGTON. D. c.

JOHN J. HENNEssEY, 0F MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

CENTER-BEARING FOR CARS.

Speciication of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 21,1911.

Application led May 18, 1911. Serial No. 628,098.

To all whom t ma/y concern.'

v Be it known that I, JOHN J. HENNEssEY, a citizen of the United St-ates, residing in Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of lVisconsin, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Center-Bearings for Cars, of which the following is a specification. Y

It is well known that railroad cars sometimes become depressed in use below the limits prescribed by the United States safety appliance standards and when this occurs it has been customary to insert in the circular recess of the truck center plate in which the boss of the body center plate seats itself, a washer or other filling material adapted to raise and maintain the body center plate above the lower limit prescribed by said standards. This filling material creates a liability on the part of the boss on `the body plate to jump or ride out of the recess in the truck center plate and thereby to strain or break the center pin.

My object in this -invention is to provide a. construction that will permit the car being raised above the truck to any desired height sufficient to support it within the limits required by law, and which will also prevent any tendency by the body plate to escape from its recess in the truck plate and thus endanger the center pin. I accomplish these ends by employing an intermediate filling plate of the necessary vertical dimensions, such intermediate filling plate having upper and lower faces which conform to and fit theopposing faces of the body and truck center plates. The details of this intermediate iilling plate are fully explained below and also shown in the accompanying drawing, in which latter- Figure 1 is a vertical section of the invention showing the filling plate positioned between the body and truck center plates. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the center plates and the filling plate, showing them detached and ready to be assembled. Figs. 3 and 4 are views of the top and bottom faces of the filling plate. Fig. 5 is a vertical section of a modified construction. Figs. 6 and 7 are face views of the top and lbottom of the modified construction of the filling plate.

In said drawing 8 represents the body bolster of the car, and 9 is the body center plate secured to such bolster.

10 is the truck bolster, supporting the truck center plate 11, and 12 is the usual center pin.

Between the two center plates is my newly invented intermediate filling plate 13. As shown, it may be of any thickness desired, so long as its top and bottom faces conform to the opposing faces of the body and truck center plates, the intermediate plate acting equally well when thick as when t-hin, and if desired a plurality of them may be employed by piling them one on top of another. By the conformity mentioned it will be understood that while the body plate has a central boss 14 surrounding the center pin, and outside of said boss a surroundinggroove 15, the top of the intermediate filling plate has a centrally located recess 14a adapted to serve as a seat for the boss 14 and a surrounding ridge 15a adapted to enter and fill the groove 15 of the body plate. Also that while the bottom of the intermediate plate has a centrally depending boss 16a and a surrounding groove 17a such boss and groove corresponding in dimensions and all other respects to the boss 14 and groove 15 of the body plate, the top surface of the truck plate has a central recess 16 in which the boss 16a seats itself, and a ridge or raised rim 17 surrounding the boss 16a adapted to `enter and `ll the groove 17a. In other words, the intermediate filling plate embodies counterpart faces of the opposing and contacting faces of both the body and truck center plates, so that when assembled with the intermediate filling plate between them the body plate will be raised to the necessary extent and at the same time will be confined as securely in the truck plate as before the intermediate filling plate was inserted.

In the modifications shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7 the body center plate 18 is made convex and the truck center plate 19 is concave and the boss 20 corresponding in function to the boss 14 of the other construction, is applied to the upper face of the intermediate filling plate 21 and enters the recess 22 in the bottom of plate 18. The intermediate filling plate in this'modified construction is dish shaped on one side and convex on the other, and in the bottom is a recess 24 adapted ,to receive a second boss 23 on the top of plate 19. Plate 21 is thus, it will be seen, the exact counterpart of the contacting faces of both center plates and serves the same function as in the other construction.

It will be obvious that the body and truck center plates shown may be inverted, the body plate then becoming the truck plate and the truck plate becoming the body plate, without changing their construction or their function, and that the filling plates shown may also be used without change other than inverting them with the inverted center plates.

I claim l. The combination of a car truck and a car body, each provided with a center bearing plate, said bearing plates having faces provided with annular ridge and groove portions adapted to fit each other, and a removable plate adapted to be interposed between the center bearing plates, said removable plate liaving the face on one side thereof provided with annular ridge and groove portions similar to those on the truck center plate and having on its opposite side annular ridge and groove portions similar to those on the car body center plate, substantially as specified.

2. The combination in a center bearing for railway cars, of a body center plate, a truck center plate, and an intermediate ll- 'ing plate interposed between said body and truck center plates and having a boss surrounding the center pin upon one of its faces, and adapted to seat itself in the recess of the opposing center plate, and also having a recess on its other face adapted to receive the boss of the other center plate.

3. The combination of a car body and a car truck, each provided with a center bearing plate, one of said bearing plates having a centrally disposed boss adapted to it a corresponding recess in the other bearing plate, and a removable filling plate interposed between the two bearing plates and having a centrally disposed boss similar to the rst named boss and on the face Jfarthest away therefrom and adapted to it the first named recess, said lling plate having on its opposite face a recess similar to the irst named recess and adapted to fit the boss on the bearing plate whereby relative transverse movement of either bearing plate and the filling plate, and undue strain on the center pin is prevented, substantially as specified.

JOHN J. HENNESSEY. Witnesses:

PEARL ARAMs, ESTHER ABRAMS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ive cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

